With the ATS-V Coupe, Cadillac Finally Finds Its New Identity

With the ATS-V Coupe, Cadillac Finally Finds Its New Identity

This is the best car they’ve got.

Last year I wrote that the Cadillac ATS coupe was “a crucial step forward” for Cadillac but that it lacked a kind of emotional hook that would help define what it means to drive a Cadillac.

Stay with me on this—I’m going somewhere with it.

Consumers needed to be able to recognize and articulate what it feels like to drive a Cadillac car in order to take the brand to the next level; so far, I wrote, we all were a little unclear.

Then came the Cadillac CT6 earlier this year—a nimble, if big, sedan that inched the needle closer to some sort of new identity for the 114-year-old brand. It’s a “slow burn toward relevant luxury,” I wrote.

Now we have the $62,665 2016 ATS-V Coupe. Available now (it’s the one in the premier spot in Cadillac’s new, cool “House.” It’s really good. If the CT6 is a slow burn toward relevance, the ATS-V is more like a bonfire. Drive it for a week, and you will start to feel a little of what owning a Cadillac is supposed to be.